Community Grants Projects

Back to School

Just because a child’s enrolled at school, it doesn’t mean they actually go. In the disadvantaged Hobart suburbs of Bridgewater and Gagebrook, truancy is a major problem – but it’s one that some people are trying to solve.

The Bridgewater Police and Citizens Youth Club employs a truancy officer plus a youth/family liaison worker as part of a community project, “Bridgewater Together Against Truancy”. This project provides support and activities primarily up to 6pm and only on weekdays.

Now, with help from the Harold Mitchell Foundation, the project will be “topped off” with excursions and activities on weekends and evenings. These are the periods when good intentions often fail, say organisers, “as peer pressure and boredom leads to young people staying up late at night and undertaking anti-social activities such as vandalism, crime, drinking and drug use. Providing activities attractive to truants during these ‘risky’ times will hopefully reduce the aforementioned barriers to school attendance.”